
Glass. 
Book_ 



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Shade trees grow to great size and beauty 



DELAWARE 

THE DIAMOND STATE 



THE GARDEN SPOT OF THE 
COUNTRY, SOME PIC- 
TURES, FACTS AND FIGURES 
OF ESPECIAL VALUE TO 
PROSPECTIVE SETTLERS. 



ISSUED BY 

The State Board of Agriculture 

DOVER, DELAWARE 



THE NEW AMSTEL MAGAZINE COMPANY 

Wilmington, Delawarb, U. S. A. 

M C M X I 




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Belatoare tfje ©iamonb ^tate 



UNUSUAL opportunities for homeseekers — beautiful homes and 
cheap lands — at the door of the best markets in the world, among 
refined, cultured and hospitable people. 

Delaware is inviting useful and industrious people to come from 
other states and countries to settle within her borders, and this pamphlet 
presents a candid reason why the invitation is extended and why it should 
be accepted by thousands of families. 

Delaware offers unusual opportunities to homeseekers — good land 
that is cheap in price, the best markets in the world and a delightful 
climate. It has beautiful homes, churches and schools and a refined, 
cultured, hospitable people. The agriculture of the State requires fuller 
development ; men, money and energy are needed for this development, 
and while there are thousands of farms that cannot be bought, others as 
good are for sale .at reasonable prices, and excellent land now idle is very 
cheap. For many years the people have been going from Delaware into 
the cities to engage in professional and business life, and the tides of 
immigration from the Old World have swept past Delaware and left it 
untouched. The towns and cities of the State are growing, but the farm 
population is not increasing in the same ratio. The total population of the 
State by the census of 1910 is 202,322, but almost half of the people are 
in the city of Wilmington, giving New Castle County 123,188; Kent, 
32,721, and Sussex, 46,413. Kent has a land area of about 630 square 
miles, and Sussex of nearly 900 square miles, so that each of the two 
lower counties has but little more than fifty inhabitants per square mile, 
and more than one-third of them live in towns, so that there are not more 
than thirty-three people to the square mile living upon the land of these 
two counties. It is safe to say that the products from the farms of these 
counties can be readily doubled, and even trebled, within two or three 




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Jjelaware the Diamond State 



years by giving better tillage to the farms now under cultivation and by 
using the land that is now idle. This will result in greatly increased 
prices of land, for ultimately the farms will sell at prices in proportion 
to the net income that they will yield. 

Delaware is one of the most favorabl\- located of all the states of 
the Union. It has a great variety of soils, all easily tilled and immensely 
productive. It lies between two bodies of salt water and has a mild, 
equable climate, a large percentage of sunny weather in winter, and it is 
close to the great markets of the eastern part of the United States. With 
the exception of Rhode Island, it is the smallest state of the American 
Union. It is on the Atlantic Coast, half way between Maine and 
Georgia. It is about 100 miles in length and has an average width of- 
only twenty miles, containing 2,050 sc|uare miles, of which ninety square 
miles are covered with water. The climate is genial, the latitude insuring 
mildness. The center of the State is as far south as Washington, D. C. 
The thirty-ninth parallel of latitude runs just south of Dover, the capital 
of Delaware, and touches the northern edge of Annapolis, Md., and 
Washington city.' The Delaware and Chesapeake Peninsula is almost 
surrounded by salt water, the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay on 
the east, the Chesapeake Bay on the west. These bodies of water modify 
the rigors of winter and the heat of summer. The long, warm seasons, 
and a kind but varied soil, make Delaware the home of nearly every 
fruit and vegetable that can be found in the temperate zone. There are 
no destructive tornadoes nor cyclones nor floods. The land is nearly 
level, no mountains, nor even hills, except in the extreme northern end 
of the State. 

Delaware is within a few hours ride of all the large cities of the 
Eastern United States. Within 500 miles of it are nearly thirty-five 
millions of people, one-third of the total population of all North America. 
Within this circle are included New York, Hartford, Providence, Boston, 
Portland, Montreal, Ottawa. Toronto, Toledo, Detroit, Cincinnati, Louis- 





">*. . • ^t **• • iS./ IfWi J»:a _.ri» 













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Delaware the Diamond State 



ville, Columbus, Pittsburg, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Wash- 
ington, and hundreds of other cities. Think of it, thirty-five millions of 
people within this circle and every one of them perfectly happy when he 
gets a Delaware peach ! Volumes might be written to enlarge upon the 
suggestive facts above summarized. Take, for example, the simple 
statement that Delaware is the home of nearly all the products of the 
temperate zone. What does that statement mean? It means for one 
thing that these products include such fruits as strawberries, blackberries, 
raspberries, grapes and many other small fruits, and tree fruits like 
peaches, pears, apples, quinces, plums and cherries ; all these fruits are 
produced in enormous quantities and of the best quality. Peach trains 
go rolling over the Delaware Railroad ; solid trains of refrigerator cars 
loaded with strawberries are sent out of Delaware daily in the strawberry 
season, sixty-four carloads going from one station in a single day, and 
in the summer and autumn trainloads of red apples go to market. Within 
twenty-four hours from the time the perishable fruit is gathered in the 
field it has been sold at a satisfactory price and is on the table of the 
consumer. 

What is true of fruits is also true of vegetables. Cantaloupes, water- 
melons, tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes, kale, cauliflower and other vegetables 
go in immense quantities to feed the hungry mouths that must be fed in 
the nearby cities. In speaking of our fruit market. Dr. H. W. Colling- 
wood said : "On Manhattan Island and across the river are 3,958,000 
people. Draw a circle fifty miles in diameter from City Hall, New 
York, and you put a line around 5,000,000 people — as many as you will 
find in all the States of Nebraska, North and South Dakota. Colorado, 
Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. 
Not 3 per cent, of these people ever produce any fruit, depending upon 
the farmers to raise fruit to send to them. It is the greatest fruit-eating 
section in the world. Now draw a line up the Hudson River to Albany, 
and thence straight east to the Atlantic Ocean, and you have 11,000,000 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



of people, a dozen or fifteen of the richest and most hixurioits cities in 
the country ; cities which have man's wealth and man's demand for fruit 
and vegetables of high quality. You have the greatest fruit market known 
in an equal area on the face of the earth, and the demand for fruit is 
increasing wonderfully. You have no conception of how people are 
demanding more fruit and better fruit." 

All of these Eastern cities are growing in i:iopulation and in wealth. 
They become more luxurious every year, and these great fruit markets 
are within easy reach of the most delicate and the most perishable products 
of the Delaware farmer. The extreme lower end of Delaware is nearer 
New York City than half of the State of New York. 

THE SOIL OF DELAWARE 



'T^ HE SOIL is alluvial. The surface is only slightly rolling, but 
enough so to insure good natural drainage. Wherever the surface 
dips below the surfounding land open ditches of moderate depth allow 
the rainfall to drain away speedily, anrl every foot of well-drained land 
in Delaware is valuable land. But the soil is not uniform; it varies in 
character all the way from stiff, heavy clay to sandy soil of an extremely 
friable character, easily tilled and productive. In a general way it may 
be said that the soil gradually becomes more sandv from the northern to 
the southern end of the State, but this is intended rather to mean that 
the proportion of sandy land increases as we go south, for there is more 
or less strong clayey loam in all parts of the State, and there is some 
sandy land in New Castle County. The red or yellow clay loam may be 
called our best and strongest soil. It produces full crops of all kinds of 
fruits and vegetables ; of grain and grass ; is fine for pasture, and with 
good tillage and proper rotation of crops requires only a moderate amount 
of fertilizer or manure to produce the heaviest crops annually. This red 
clay may not always come to the surface, but may lie a few inches below a 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



friable sandy loam, and for some purposes a sandy topsoil with clay 
subsoil is still better than the clay surface, for it dries out more quickly 
after a rain, is more easily tilled, causes vegetables to mature earlier, and 
hence often to catch the best prices in the market, and upon it fruits gain 
a richer color. The heavy, white clay is found in small scattered areas, 
disappointing until it has been well drained and filled with vegetable 
matter by the application of manure or by turning under green crops. 
It is excellent for pasture and for hay, and when the season is favorable 
it produces large crops of corn and wheat. The sandy loam is not 
adapted to grazing, but is very desirable for market gardening, for fruits, 
early potatoes, sweet potatoes and for alfalfa and many other crops. 
There is some black land, so called because of its color due to the 
presence of a large amount of vegetable matter, mostly a sandy loam, 
low-lying, so that the water level is near the surface, and thus it is 
ideal land for strawberries. 

These different varieties of soil require different treatment to yield 
the best returns. People who are acquainted with the agricultural con- 
ditions in other states and countries speak of Delaware soil as "kindly," 
and this word is very appropriate and expressive in this connection. 
Every grade of Delaware soil responds in a very remarkable manner 
to .tillage and manures. The effect of green manuring is marvelous ; 
cowpeas, soy beans, crimson clover and other leguminous crops when 
plowed under make the sandiest soil wonderfully productive. The poorest 
sand in the State can be made to produce forty to fifty bushels of shelled 
corn per acre every year and from one to two tons of clover hay without 
the application of any manure or fertilizer. The crimson clover is the 
secret of it. Plant the corn in the spring, sow the clover seed among the 
rows of corn at the last cultivation. The clover grows in the fall, and all 
winter during the open spells, and in the spring is ready to plow under. 
Repeat the operation and by the second or third spring the clover may 
be cut for hay, and in ten years the poor sand has become a fertile, 

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Delaware the Diamond Otate 



retentive soil, producing two crops every year. The crimson clover 
matures and is cut for hay about the middle of May, and the corn crop 
will mature before frost if planted by the first of July. This process of 
improving sandy land is hastened by the application of a little dissolved 
rock and muriate of potash to the corn and clover for the first three or 
four years, and much larger crops are grown, and every pound of these 
fertilizers applied will pay for itself in the following crop. The great 
fact stands out plain and clear that the Delaware soil in the Delaware 
climate is capable of producing upon itself the green manure that will 
make it as fertile and productive as one can ask, at the same time pro- 
ducing good yields of a staple crop. This is not true of the land in cold 
climates where the growing season is short. 

General farming, stock raising, grain and grass are profitable. \^\i\. 
the character of the soil, the warm climate and the nearness to market 
make a large number of specialties still more profitable. To discuss the 
quality of the soil in Delaware in a comprehensive way it is necessary 
to consider some of the climatic conditions as well as temperature and 
the distribution of the rainfall. If a soil freezes six months in the year, 
and by drying out is baked as hard as a brick a good part of the other 
six months, the plant food contained in it can be of very little use, for 
the mineral elements of plant food become available by the action of heat 
and moisture. In Delaware the summers are long and the winters are 
often open. Occasionally we experience the benefit of a deep freeze, 
which has a loosening or pulverizing eft'ect upon the subsoil. The greater 
part of the year is warm enough to promote the chemical activity that 
decomposes soil as well as the activity of bacteria that perform a similar 
office, and also add to the fertility of the soil by gathering the free nitrogen 
of the air and storing it in the soil as plant food. What the soil may 
produce, therefore, depends not so much upon the amount of inert plant 
food that it may contain as upon the processes that go on within it. It 
it supposed that the surface of the earth was originally stones or rock, 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



but by the action of the atmosphere, the rains and certain grinding 
processes, especially of water, the rock became decomposed, plants grew 
in it, and the action of the growing plants helped the process, until after 
long ages we have soil instead of stone. This same process is still going 
on, and most soils have enough plant food for hundreds and even thou- 
sands of big crops. In Delaware the long warm summers and frequent 
rains cause this process to be extremely active, and great quantities of 
plant food are made soluble. This is why thorough cultivation in Dela- 
ware makes big crops. The soil is kept open to admit the air, and culti- 
vation, especially after each rain, makes the best mulch and conserves 
the water in the soil. The mild winters enable hardy legumes, such as 
the clovers, and especially crimson clover, to grow during the greater 
part of the time. This clover not only takes up the plant food as it 
becomes available during the fall, winter and spring, but it gathers the 
inert nitrogen from the air and makes it worth from 15 to 20 cents per 
pound. The air is largely nitrogen and the clover' plant takes a little of 
this nitrogen — enough to be worth $15, $20 or $25 per acre — during the 
fall and winter and converts it into plant food. The clover made into 
hay and fed to cattle returns this nitrogen and also the mineral elements 
of plant food to the soil, and this process adds constantly to the soil 
fertility and insures perpetual maximum crops. 

THE FRUIT INDUSTRY 

WITH such a soil and such a climate it is no wonder that fruit 
growing is immensely profitable, and here the apple is the king of 
fruits. Fully half of the land in the State, or 640,000 acres, is admirably 
adapted to growing apples, and much of the other half can be devoted to 
the same purpose with the certainty of success. The apple has been 
grown in Delaware since the State was settled and fine native varieties 
thrive everywhere. For several years early apples have been a prominent 

Seventeen 



Delaware the Diamond State 



feature of our fruit growing, as the conditions are especially favorable for 
their profitable production. These early varieties mature after the winter 
apples are out of the market, and just at the end of the strawberry rush 
they bring a good price. They are shipped in refrigerator cars to all of the 
eastern part of the United States and into Canada, and in all this territory 
at this season they very nearly monopolize the apple market. It will be 
a long time before the demand for these early apples is fully met, and 
although the production is increasing in quantity, the quality is improving 
and the demand is more than keeping pace with the supply, so that every 
succeeding year prices are higher than they were the year before. On our 
level, easily tilled lands, orchards are started with comparatively little 
expense. The land requires no special preparation. It is marked off at 
the proper distances to set the trees, which is done with little labor, and 
the trees themselves can be bought at from $60 to $150 per thousand. 
With proper culture these trees grow very rapidly and begin to bear when 
five or six years of age. We have a large number of varieties, both 
early and late, that are admirably adapted to Delaware ; prolific bearers, 
fruit of the finest quality and handsome appearance, and commanding 
the very highest price in the market ; and the crop can be counted on as 
regularly and certainly as corn and wheat. Delaware has the market for 
early apples almost to itself, because farther South these early varieties 
do not thrive, while in Delaware they succeed to a degree that leaves 
nothing to desire. The late varieties also grow to perfection, and of these 
we have many kinds of large size, beautiful in color, of the best quality, 
that will keep all through the winter, so that they can be held for the 
highest prices of the year. Apple growing is increasing in importance. 
In 1890 there were 340,648 apple trees of bearing age in the State ; in 
1900 this number had become 567,618, an increase of 66 per cent., and 
it is certain that we now have a much larger number of bearing trees. 
A well-managed orchard will give a clear income above all expenses of 
from $100 to $1,000 per acre. Not many bearing apple orchards are for 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



sale, but good apple land is for sale, and one is able to purchase it all 
the way from $10 to $100 per acre, according to location and improve- 
ments. It will pay a profit on the cost while the trees are growing, and 
in a few years will be the source of a very agreeable income if planted to 
this fruit. Why go to the inaccessible mountains of the South and West, 
away from railroads, away from the people, and spend a fortune clearing 
unkind land of trees, stumps and stones, when clean land, tillable as an 
ash heap, may be had for a song, where a railroad runs across it, in the 
heart of civilization ? The apple is the King of Delaware fruits ; cer- 
tainly Delaware will be one of the great apple producing States. 

Professor C. A. McCue, Horticulturist of the Delaware Experiment 
Station, recently wrote as follows : "Delaware has many peculiar advan- 
tages that would cause a thoughtful man to select her as a place to grow 
apples : 

"First — Upon suitable soil and carefully selected location, Delaware 
can grow an apple as good as the best in color and second to none in flavor. 

"Second — Delaware's markets are right at her door, and there is no 
long railroad haul to get products upon the market. 

"Third — With carefully selected varieties we sufifer less from apple 
scab than many other apple growing sections. 

"Fourth — Easily obtainable water supply for spraying purposes. 

"Fifth — Easily tillable land. 

"Sixth — Long growing season. 

"Seventh — But little damage from frost." 

Under date of July 18, 1910, Frank C. Bancroft, President of the 
Peninsula Horticultural Society, wrote from Wyoming, Del. : "Regarding 
the Williams Red apple, I am estimating our crop from one hundred and 
twenty trees at from twelve to fifteen hundred hampers. The average 
price in Wyoming in 1909 was $1.50 per hamper, %-bushel size. The 
present crop is the admiration of all who see it." 

F. M, Soper, Magnolia, Del., wrote recently : "I have been in Dela- 

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JDelaware trie Diamond State 



ware thirty-two years and I have never known a complete failure of the 
apple crop. We have 45,000 trees under cultivation and will say that 
Delaware produces as fine an apple as can be produced in any section of 
this country. We get the flavor and color and quality, and in price we 
are second to none. Last year we sold two thousand dollars' worth of 
fruit from seventy-five "Sfeees, and this year we received from one acre 
of Yellow Transparent over twelve hundred dollars." 

Professor C. P. Close, now Horticulturist of the Maryland Experi- 
ment Station, was the Horticulturist of the Delaware Station before going 
to Maryland, and at the meeting of the Peninsula Horticultural Society in 
Dover, January, 1907, said : "Before coming to Delaware I thought that 
apples could grow only on clay soils, and when I saw the Delaware sands 
I thought they might do for peaches but not for apples. But after a 
careful study and observation of what is actually taking place in Delaware, 
we must admit that Delaware can produce as good apples as can be grown 
in any portion of the country. The greatest surprise of all is to see what 
can be done on the light sands of this State. You get the flavor and color 
and quality, and in prices you are second to none. Last winter I had 
occasion to visit some of the fruit stores in Philadelphia and found the 
best grades of Delaware apples were selling for better prices than those 
from Oregon or from New York. A friend of mine, who is interested 
in apple culture in Colorado, advised me to invest in raw land in that 
State at $100 per acre, with water rights to cost another $100. When I 
told him that Delaware orchards sometimes yield from $600 to $800 per 
acre in a single year, he said : 'That is as well as we can do out West.' 
Delaware is most favorably situated as to markets, in this respect far 
ahead of the West. It seems to me that if I were to go into the apple 
business in Delaware I should plant heavily of the early varieties. You 
can have apples the year around if the fruit is properlv picked, packed 
and stored. You can eat apples of your own growing every day in the 
year." 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



PEACHES 

PEACH orchards were common among the early settlers of the State 
and have flourished for more than two centuries. The first com- 
mercial orchards of budded varieties were planted near Delaware City in 
1832. These orchards were so profitable that the industry spread rapidly, 
and between 1865 and 1875 all the central part of New Castle County 
was almost one continuous peach orchard. In 1875 more than one million 
five hundred thousand half-bushel baskets of peaches were shipped from 
Middletown, an average of thirty-five carloads per day for the whole sea- 
son. Never before in the history of the world had peach growing been 
conducted upon such a large scale and with such marvelous success. Fol- 
lowing 1875 there was a marked decline in peach growing in New Castle 
County, owing to several causes, but the industry gradually extended to 
the southern end of the State, and while the crop is now somewhat 
uncertain, there is no reason why it should not again be as profitable as 
it was twenty-five or fifty years ago. An orchard near Dover of less 
than twenty-five acres has yielded $30,000, and appears to be good for 
other crops. Another orchard of twelve acres has been quite as profitable. 
An orchard near Bridgeville of five hundred trees bore every year for 
several years, and in 1904 two hundred of these trees of the Elberta 
variety bore eleven hundred baskets of fruit which sold at Bridgeville for 
more than $1,000. Under peculiar circumstances, when the crop was a 
general failure, a few years ago, the fruit from two hundred trees near 
Greenwood sold for more than $3,100. While these are exceptional cases, 
many orchards even in recent years have been a very satisfactory source 
of large profits. 

PEARS 



PEAR culture is also profitable. There are now about a million pear 
trees in the State. They grow rapidly, bear early and are prolific. 
The oriental type of pears especially succeeds here as nowhere else. A 
number of other tree fruits are also grown with success and profit. 

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STRAWBERRIES 

\ MONG small fruits, strawberries take the lead. Sussex County 
produces more of this fruit than any other county in the world. 
In 1910 there were 21,907,163 quarts of berries shipped over the Delaware 
Division of the P., B. & W. Railroad, a very large proportion of which 
were grown in Delaware. Bridgeville shipped 425 refrigerator cars and 
about seventy-five ventilator cars during the season, bringing to that 
station about $300,000. Selbyville is the second largest shipping point 
in the world, and there are other stations from which train loads are 
made up daily from the time shipments are fairly under way until they 
close. Prices at the station often average from 6 to 10 cents per quart. 
One grower at Bridgeville received $3,360 from twelve acres in 1902. 
In 1904 he cleared $300 per acre on Gandy after paying for picking and 
crates. In one day he sold 3,168 quarts at from 14 to 17 cents per quart, 
receiving a total of $500 for them, all gathered at one picking from two 
acres. Strawberry growing is increasing in extent and the prices are 
running higher year by year, showing that, like apples, the demand is 
outrunning the supply. 

The more labor, fertilizer and care put upon the crop the less the 
cost of production per quart, and the better the fruit, and, therefore, the 
better the price and the greater the net profit. There are men in the 
business who have saved a competence out of it. The best practice is to 
plant rather early, ranging from January to March, setting the plants 
from 18 inches to 2 feet apart in the row and making the rows from 
3 to 4 feet apart. The ground should be prepared the previous season by 
a crop of cowpeas, or tomatoes in which crimson clover was sown, or by 
some other crop that will leave the ground in good condition. Consid- 
erable areas of low lying land are found in different parts of the State, 
and these are often cleared of trees or shrubs and planted to strawberries 
as the first crop after clearing. Such land is ideal for the Gandy straw- 

T'weiity-seveii 



Delaware the Diamond State 



berry, which is one of the most profitable varieties. Fine, large fruit, 
that will carry to market in solid bright condition, always brings good 
prices. When the ground is ready for planting the rows are run out and 
from 600 pounds to 1,000 pounds per acre of a high grade fertilizer is 
applied down the row and worked in and the plants are set. In the 
autumn possibly as much more is applied. If the appearance of the plant 
indicates the need of it, from 50 to 150 pounds of nitrate of soda per acre 
is applied in the spring. The plants are kept well cultivated and are 
hoed by hand about six times, the aim being to keep the ground stirred 
often and free from weeds. Blackberries and dewberries have been 
extensively grown and have been very profitable, and in some localities 
the red raspberry was for years the leading commercial crop and one of 
the most profitable ever grown in Delaware. 

GRAPES 



^^^ RAPE culture has not been extensively practiced in Delaware except 
^"'^ in a few localities, including the vicinity of Smyrna, Dover and 
Felton. For more than twenty years the business has been very profitable 
around Smyrna, and within the last ten years vineyards have been planted 
and have come into bearing near Dover. Some of these vineyards have 
been set by experienced men from the best grape regions of New York, 
who pronounce the soil, climate and other conditions superior even to the 
best that they have known elsewhere. A large amount of land in Dela- 
ware is excellent for grape culture and much of it is very cheap, so that 
the industry is sure to extend year by year. There is no danger of an 
oversupply of this fruit so long as it is of the fine flavor and appearance 
that it attains in Delaware when properly grown. There are many other 
fruits that are produced in smaller quantities, and there is no reason why 
any expert fruit grower may not select the kind or variety that pleases 
him best, make a specialty of its production and make money out of it. 

Twenty-nine 



Delaware the Diamond State 



VEGETABLES 

ELAWARE not only excels in fruit culture, but it produces many 
vegetables, such as Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, cab- 
bage, turnips, and others in extensive commercial quantities. The pota- 
toes, cabbage and turnips are shipped to market, but the tomatoes are 
mostly canned at factories in the State. The canning business is an 
industry in itself. In 1907 the green peas packed amounted to 141,036 
cases of two dozen No. 2 cans each ; valued when ready to ship at 
$275,000. The growers were paid $72,500. Sweet corn, 75,000 cases of 
two dozen each; total value, $110,000 — of w^hich the growers received 
about $30,000. Tomatoes, 1,317,284 cases of two dozen each No. 3 cans ; 
total value, $2,240,000— of which the growers received $658,600. This 
does not include the tomatoes shipped away for immediate consumption. 
nor those shipped to Baltimore and other points for canning. 

POTATOES 



O VVEET POTATOES have long been a leading commercial vegeta- 
*^ ble crop in this State, and many a farm of sandy soil has paid for 
itself over and over by this crop. The process of planting, cultivating and 
harvesting is all plain and simple and not beyond the skill of any ordinary 
farmer. With the proper soil and good cultural methods, the yield is 
from 200 to 400 bushels per acre, and one grower near Milford claims 
to have averaged a net profit of $100 per acre on from fifteen to twenty 
acres per year for the last twenty years. While this is unusual, the 
crop as a whole is a paying one. Irish potatoes, or round potatoes as they 
are often called, have been planted in increasing area and with increasing 
profits during the last few years. A few farmers make a specialty of the 
late crop, planting them in July, but a much larger number plant as early 
as possible in the spring, apply heavy quantities of fertilizer and get a 

Thirty-one 



Delaware the Diamond State 



good crop which pays well. No better soil can be found anywhere 
for both sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes than the alluvial sandy loam 
of Delaware. Fill it with humus by growing cowpeas and crimson clover 
and then apply moderate quantities of commercial fertilizers and abundant 
crops are certain to follow if the proper tillage is given. A paper read 
at a recent meeting of the Peninsula Horticultural Society deals with the 
conditions at Bridgeville and vicinity, and says : 

"The early potato crop has been a profitable one for several years. 
Our condition as to nearness of markets, genial climate and character 
of soil are all favorable to this industry. Farmers' Bulletin No. 35, 
United States Department of Agriculture, says : 'The ideal soil for this 
crop should be one so light as to offer no great resistance to the enlarge- 
ment of the tubers, so supplied with organic matter as to be rather moist 
without being wet, and so rich as to furnish an unfailing supply of fertil- 
izing ingredients. A rich, sandy loam, abundantly supplied with organic 
matter and naturally well drained, is preferable. Stiffer soil may be 
rendered suitable for the potato by draining and by the incorporation of 
farm manures, or better by plowing under green crops. Very heavy clay 
should be avoided if the farm contains any lighter soil. Recently cleared 
ground suits the potato. Sandy soils, if not too subject to drought, may 
be fitted for this plant by the addition of organic matter. It is claimed 
that potatoes grown on sandy land are of better quality than those grown 
on stiffer soil. The potato requires a good soil, but even more important 
than natural fertility is a proper mechanical condition of the soil. Arti- 
ficial fertilizers may be substituted in part for natural fertility, but they 
are effective only when the soil is in such condition as to furnish a 
constant supply of water. The potato should have the best soil on the 
farm, since it is more exacting in this respect than the other staple crops 
and since the product of an acre is generally of greater value. The 
success of the potato is largely dependent upon the crops preceding it in 
the rotation. If clover, cowpeas or other leguminous plant is grown just 



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Delaware the JJiamond State 



preceding potatoes, its stubble furnishes organic matter and adds to the 
store of available nitrogen in the soil. Corn after sod frequently precedes 
potatoes, and this is generally regarded as the best rotation." 

This description of the ideal soil and ideal conditions fits Delaware 
exactly, and the potato grows here to perfection. We have just these 
conditions ; our soil is ideal ; we can produce easily and cheaply an 
abundant supply of vegetable matter rich in nitrogen and in all the min- 
eral elements of plant food by sowing the land in cowpeas, soy beans, 
velvet beans, crimson clover, vetch, rape, turnips and other cover crops, 
according to the rotation practiced. If potatoes are preceded by tomatoes, 
crimson clover (or crimson clover and turnips) can be sown at the last 
cultivation of the tomatoes, and when the time comes to plow the ground 
in the spring we shall have a nice mat of green clover to put the land 
into the right condition so that a heavy application of high grade fer- 
tilizer will be extremely profitable, because it will force a rapid growth 
and give an enormous crop of tubers of extra quality. The clover will 
contain as much nitrogen per acre as can be bought for $20 or $25, and 
the roots will bring mineral elements of plant food from the subsoil, 
and the succeeding crop, whatever it may be, will be a good one. Such 
a field near Dover gave nearly seventy-five bushels of shelled corn per 
acre in 1910, after a big crop of potatoes were removed in July of the 
same year. The ground is plowed early in spring for the potatoes in 
order to conserve the moisture that came in the winter rains. 

MARKET GARDENING 

I^^ARKET gardening on the intensive plan is a good business near 
any of the larger Delaware towns, and is especially so near Wil- 
mington. In addition to supplying the local markets, there is also oppor- 
tunity to grow many kinds of vegetables for shipment to the more 
distant cities, especially Philadelphia and other cities in eastern Pennsyl- 

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Fruit at the ski'^'^ing station 



Delaware the Diamond State 



vania and New York. New York City is nearer the southern end of 
Delaware than it is to the center of New York State, and Delaware soil 
and climate will soon make the Diamond State the kitchen garden of 
many of the Eastern cities with their millions of people. 

MARKETING FACILITIES IN DELAWARE 

'^T OT ONLY is Delaware in the heart of the population of the 
^ United States, in the midst of the great markets, close to the people 
who have the means and taste for the most luxurious products of the soil 
and most delicious things that grow out of the ground, but the State 
is covered with a system of railroads and is penetrated at short intervals 
with navigable streams, creeks and rivers, which afiford unrivaled trans- 
portation facilities for carrying these delicious products over the short 
distances between the farms and the mouths that eat the fruits and 
vegetables that grow upon these farms. Besides this, a comparatively new 
method of marketing farm products, originating in Delaware, places 
buyers at the railroad stations where they pay cash for the goods as they 
leave the wagon of the farmer. The farmer gathers his strawberries, 
apples, peaches, potatoes or other products, hauls them to the nearest 
railroad station or wharf and goes home with a good cash price in his 
pocket. Or, he may deliver his produce to an agent of his choice who 
sends it to the most favorable market. So there are two phases of the 
system. In one case commission merchants in all the principal cities 
have agents or buyers at the stations to receive goods and pay cash ; 
in the other — at the same stations- — men stand ready to ship the goods 
on consignment. The one checks the other and prevents monopoly of 
buying, and thus insures fair prices. The plan of having buyers at the 
stations has decided advantages. Each buyer can select exactly the kind 
and quality of fruit or vegetables that suits his market, and the commission 
merchant knows every day in advance just what he is to receive the fol- 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



lowing day, and he prepares to handle it to the best advantage, so it often 
happens that the farmer at Cheswold, Dover, Wyoming, Bridgeville, 
Selbyville, or other shipping points in Delaware, receives as much per 
quart for his berries, or per basket for his peaches, or per barrel for his 
potatoes, as the commission merchant pays for goods received on con- 
signment when they reach the city. 

THE PRODUCE EXCHANGE 



'T^HE DELAWARE PRODUCE EXCHANGE, organized in 1910, 
did a large business the first season, handling more than thir- 
teen hundred carloads of fruits and vegetables, and securing for the 
farmers better prices than they were offered at the railroad stations. 
The general manager of the Exchange keeps in direct touch by tele- 
graph and telephone with the most reliable and competent commission 
merchants in the cities where there is an outlet for Delaware prod- 
ucts. He knows every day the exact condition of every particular 
market and in this way is able to sell carloads on the track, or ship 
to markets that are comparatively bare of produce, and hence in a 
position to give the highest cash prices. 

GENERAL FARMING 



T T MUST not be thought that because Delaware is particularly 
adapted to fruit growing and market gardening that it is not 
equally well adapted to general farming, grain growing, dairying, 
cattle raising and other lines of agriculture. Nearly one-half of the 
farms are devoted to corn and wheat as the principal money crops, 
and such farms pay from six per cent, to twelve per cent, interest 
on the investment of the land owner. Many of these farms are 
carried on by tenants, and while the owner receives a good income, 
the tenant not only lives well, but saves money Dairying is most 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



extensively conducted in the northern part of the State, but by means 
of the silo and the soiling system, it is profitable on the sandy lands, 
more particularly in connection with some fruit specialty like apple 
growing, or strawberry culture. The same may be said also of raising 
cattle for beef. Pork production is also extremely profitable because 
all kinds of forage plants and grain grow with extreme luxuriance and 
yield immense crops. On this point M, G. Kains, associate editor of 
the American Agriculturist, says : '"Though dairying, sheep, swine 
and cattle raising and horse breeding are less practiced than in other 
sections, this is only because crops are considered more profitable 
than stock. There is no reason, however, why these branches of 
agriculture should not be undertaken on a larger scale than they are 
at present. They would almost all be profitable enough at least to 
supply local demands, and in some cases be profitable also for sup- 
plying needs outside the State." 

There is no better place in the world for poultry than Dela- 
ware. Because of the mild winters, during which such crops as 
crimson clover, cabbage, turnips and other hardy plants grow, or 
remain green, egg production is one of the most profitable and satis- 
factory lines of business. Along the streams water fowl are profit- 
able because the breeding stock feed themselves for almost the entire 
year and much of the food for the other fowl could be secured from 
the water and pastures. Along the shores of the bay there are many 
locations as admirable for goose and duck raising as the famous spots 
of Long Island. , 

CORN AND WHEAT 

'' I ^HE FARMERS who grow corn and wheat as their principal 
money crops, plant fields running from ten acres to one hun- 
dred acres each, and with good cultural methods wheat yields from 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



twenty to thirty bushels per acre, or even forty and forty-five bushels 
under exceptionally favorable conditions. In 1910 the area in 
wheat was 122,000 acres and the yield seventeen bushels per acre, 
a better average yield than was secured in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Missouri, Nebraska and a number of large wheat growing states. The 
average area planted to corn is about 200,000 acres, and there has been 
a gradual increase in yield for twenty years past. The ten-year 
average up to 1895 was about twenty bushels per acre ; the ten-year 
average from 1895 to 1905 was twenty-six and eight-tenths bushels ; 
the five-year average from 1905 to 1910 is thirty and four-tenths 
bushels. The yield in 1908 was thirty-two bushels. In 1909 a drought 
of unusual severity was prevalent over all of New Castle County at 
a critical time so that the yield for the state was reduced to thirty- 
one bushels. In 1910 a similar condition affected Kent and Sussex 
counties, and the yield was thirty-one and eight-tenths bushels. With 
the present cultural methods and an average season the yield should be 
thirty-four bushels. Through the efforts of the Delaware Corn Grow- 
ers' Association and the State Board of Agriculture, by means of 
corn shows where prizes are given, farmers' institutes and other agen- 
cies, a systematic effort is now being made to increase the average 
yield to fifty bushels per acre, and this yield is likely to be attained 
in a very short time. The prizes for yields in 1910 were given to 
Naudain & Son, Marshallton, who had ninety-two bushels of dry 
shelled corn per acre ; A. S. Whittock, Odessa, who had eighty-eight 
bushels, and E. A. Evans, of Cheswold, who had sixty-seven bushels, 
based upon corn that was shelled and weighed after it was thoroughly 
dried out. Mr. Evans' corn was an acre taken from a field that had 
received only such culture as he usually gives, and the yield was cut 
severely by the dr}^ weather. There were many large fields in the 
State that would give a higher yield than that secured by Mr. Evans, 
but they were not included in the competition. 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



Crimson clover is one of the most important factors in soil 
improvement to secure increased yields of grain at a large profit. As 
typical of w^hat may be accomplished, the experience of B. F. B. 
Woodall, Milford, may be cited. In January, 1909, Mr. Woodall made 
the following statement about his treatment of a piece of land that 
was so depleted of plant food by bad management that it would not 
produce a paying crop. The soil is a sandy or light loam. "Scarlet 
clover has been the all-important material for bringing this soil up to 
its improved condition. To get the first crop of clover on siich soil, 
plow in July and harrow in thoroughly four hundred pounds per acre 
of a mixture of acid phosphate and kainit, then just after the first rain 
sow eight quarts of clover per acre and harrow it in. The next spring, 
in March, repeat the application of fertilizer and if this crop should 
not be a heavy one, turn it under. If a good crop, cut it for hay, turn 
the stubble and plant in corn. Seed to clover in August after the 
cultivation of the corn is finished. This method of cropping every 
year can be continued for an indefinite time as has been done for 
twelve years at least, with my own soil, which is now producing fifty 
to sixty bushels of shelled corn and two tons of dry hay to the acre 
every year. This land will now produce in its high state of fertility 
cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes and fruits to the amount of $100 to $200 
per acre without additional application of commercial phosphate. 
Every time I plow this land I turn up a half-inch of sub-soil so as to 
get the soil deeper. 

The cost and returns per acre for thirteen years are as follows : 

400 pounds of phosphate, $2.80 per year for thirteen years $36.40 

Seed each year, $1.00 per year for thirteen years 13.00 

4 applications of lime 8.00 

Total cost per acre for thirteen years $57.40 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



12 crops of corn, average 40 bushels, 480 bu. at 50c $240.00 

12 crops of fodder at $5 60.00 

12 crops of hay, 18 tons at $12 216.00 

Total returns for thirteen years, per acre $516.00 

Total profit for thirteen years, per acre 458.60 

Profit per acre, per year • 35.2/ 

It is seen from this statement that corn growing in Delaware is a 
very lucrative business and that it is not difficult to convert the poorest 
land into soil of great fertility while making a substantial profit on 
the crops produced. What Mr. Woodall has done on a small scale 
with great care and exactness has been done in a slightly less degree 
on a large scale by many farmers in the State. 

WHAT THE CENSUS REVEALS 

'T^HE FIGURES given in the census of 1910 were based upon the 
-"" crops of 1909, and not only were the crops cut short by a severe 
drought, but because of unusual frosts the peach crop was a total 
failure, and the yield of pears and apples was considerably reduced, 
and the year for strawberries was not a favorable one. Yet the census 
shows that the total value of farm buildings increased during the 
ten years from $10,677,000 in 1900 to $18,117,000 or seventy per cent. 
The total value of farm land increased from $23,769,000 in 1900 to $34,- 
810,000, a gain of $11,041,000, or forty-six per cent. The average value 
per acre of farm land increased from $22 to $34, or fifty-four per cent. 
The average value per acre, including buildings, increased from $32 per 
acre to $51 per acre, or fifty-nine per cent. There are now, in 1910, a total 
of 10,800 farms in the State with an average of ninety-six acres per 
farm. The value of the land, buildings and farm implements in 1910 
amounted to $56,128,000. 

The crops produced in 1910 include the following: Corn. 202,000 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



acres, 31.8 bushels per acre, 6,424,000 bushels, farm value 52c. per 
bushel, amounting to $3,340,000; wheat, 122,000 acres, 17 bushels per 
acre, 2,074,000 bushels, farm value 90c. per bushel, amounting- to 
$1,867,000; oats, 4,000 acres, 33.8 bushels per acre, 135,000 bushels, 
farm value 43c. per bushel, $58,000; rye, 1,000 acres, 16 bushels per 
acre, 16,000 bushels, farm value, 69c., $11,000; buckwheat, 2,000 acres, 
20.5 bushels per acre, 41,000 bushels, farm value 65c. per bushel, 
$27,000; potatoes, 10,000 acres, 103 bushels per acre, 1,030,000 bushels, 
farm value 60c., $618,000; hay, 77,000 acres, 1.43 tons per acre, 110,000 
tons, farm value $14.80 per ton, amounting to $1,628,000. 

The fruit crop in 1910 amounted to 20,000,000 quarts of berries, 
750,000 bushels of apples, 500,000 bushels of peaches, 631,000 bushels 
of pears, 279,000 carriers of cantaloupes and Z7Z carloads of water- 
melons. There were shipped from Bridgeville in 1910, 4,600,000 quarts 
of strawberries, 12,000 barrels of potatoes, 18,000 carriers of canta- 
loupes, 30,000 bushels of pears, 75,000 bushels of peaches, 25,000 
bushels of apples, 40,000 bushels of tomatoes, besides 150,000 bushels 
of tomatoes canned by a local cannery. 

PURE WATER IN ABUNDANCE 



/^NE of the most important things upon the farm is an abundant 
supply of pure water It ministers to the health and happiness 
as well as to the wealth of the family. A lack of water causes incon- 
venience and loss, while impure water breeds disease and death. Dela- 
ware has an abundant and unfailing supply of pure, cool, refreshing 
water. Among the hills of the extreme north there are living springs 
that never run dry, and in all the level portion of the State it is only 
necessary to drive a galvanized iron pipe, bearing a perforated point, 
into the soil to a depth of from twenty to sixty feet, attach a good 
pump, and then by hand or windmill or engine, pump from the 
earth a steady stream of as pure water as human lips need taste; an 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



abundance for man and beast ; for the household and stable ; for spray- 
ing and, if desired, for irrigation. No doubt some of this water comes 
from the hills and mountains north of Delaware, but the rainfall of 
forty-six inches per year, well distributed through all the year, is a 
large factor in this unlimited supply of health giving water. 

THE PRICE OF LAND 

"VTEAR some of the most prosperous towns bare land is selling for 
-^^ much as $150 per acre, while near other towns land just as 
desirable can be bought for less than half of that price. The very best 
land in the state, two or three miles from a railroad, is often for sale 
at from $50 to $100 per acre, including excellent buildings and other 
improvements. In other places the price is less than half these 
amounts. Of the total acreage of farm land — 1,037,000 acres — 283,000 
acres are classed as unimproved land. Some of this unimproved land is 
idle or is growing up in bushes, or is in the hands of shiftless tenants 
who will not work it, and such land can be bought at from $5 to $20 
per acre and can be converted into the finest farms and most desirable 
homes by the expenditure of very little money, and by intelligent, 
well-directed labor. It is also possible to buy highly improved farms 
with good buildings, comfortable and convenient surroundings, close 
to town, possessing all the advantages afforded by schools, churches 
and good society, at very reasonable prices and on easy terms. All 
classes of home seekers are thus able to find farms and locations to 
suit their taste and need. The price of land, however, is increasing in 
some places very rapidly, in others slowly, but the increase during 
the past ten years has been from an average of $32 per acre to an ave- 
rage of $51 per acre, including buildings; or for land alone, from 
$22 per acre to $34 per acre. At the present rate of development and 
the rapidly increasing interest in land improvement we may confi- 

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Delaware the Diamond State 



dently expect a still greater ratio of increase during- the ten years to 
come. 

SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES 



'T^HE educational system of the State is founded upon a system of 
free public schools of all grades from the kindergarten to the 
high school, with Delaware College standing at the head of the series, 
open to all students from the State, giving free tuition. For the public 
schools the State appropriates more than $200 per year for each teacher 
employed. This appropriation is from funds derived from corporations 
and license fees levied upon various kinds of business. Delaware Col- 
lege is becoming a strong institution, well equipped in all its branches 
and is developing a department of agriculture which will make it the 
best training school in the country for the young farmers of Delaware 
because it will train them in the exact lines most practical and useful 
to them. The public schools are improving year by year and the keen 
interest in them displayed by all classes of citizens insures their 
continuous and rapid development in the future. There are churches 
in all the towns and in the rural districts of every Protestant denom- 
ination, and there are Catholic churches in most of the larger towns. 

THE PEOPLE 



'T^HE people of Delaware are intelligent and hospitable, broad- 
minded, liberal, kind-hearted and industrious. About one-sixth 
of the population belong to the colorecl race, and the white people 
belong to the purest strain of the Anglo-Saxon race in the United 
States. The tides of immigration for many years past have swept 
westward and left Delaware untouched, so that the people are descend- 
ants of the original European settlers. 

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TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES 

'T^HE Delaware Railroad runs through the center of the State and 
sends off branches at various points, and when it reaches Sussex 
county divides into v^^hat may be called two main lines Other rail- 
roads cross the State. A trolley line now extends as far south as 
Delaware City. On both sides of the State are rivers and navigable 
streams. With all these facilities there is scarcely a spot in the State 
that is ten miles from a railroad station or a steamboat landing. Tele- 
phone and telegraph lines extend everywhere. 

FISH, OYSTERS AND GAME 

T^ISH, oysters and game are not only a source of revenue to the 
State, but they add in a most delightful way to the charms of liv- 
ing and are not to be despised as a means of gaining a livelihood. 
Oysters, clams and terrapin are abundant, as also are shad, herring, 
weakfish, sea trout and many other kinds of fish. Wild ducks and geese 
are shot in all the bays and inlets, and quail, snipe and other birds are 
plentiful. Rabbits and squirrels abound. 

THE THREE COUNTIES 



'T^HERE are but three counties in the state. New Castle in the 
north. Kent in the center, and Sussex in the south. The extreme 
northern end of the state is somewhat hilly, but all the remainder is 
level or gentle rolling, free from stones and all easily tilled. The city 
of Wilmington has more than 90,000 people. New Castle about 4,000; 
Newark, Middletown and Delaware City about 1,000 or 1,500 each, and 
there are other smaller towns in New Castle county. In Kent county, 
Dover, the capital of the state, has 4,000 inhabitants ; Smyrna and Mil- 
ford each about 3,000; Harrington, Felton, Camden and Clayton from 

Fifty-five 





ijearmg a full load at five years of age 



Delaware the Diamond State 



1,000 to 2,000. In Sussex county, Georgetown, the county seat, Lewes, 
on the seaboard, Bridgeville, Seaford, Laurel and Delmar are all im- 
portant towns of from 2,000 to 4,000 people each. These are all great 
shipping points for fruits, vegetables, grain and other farm products. 
Selbyville, below Georgetown, and near the Maryland line, is the sec- 
ond largest shipping point for strawberries, Bridgeville being the 
largest in the world. These towns and several smaller ones have 
banks, as well as schools, churches, opera houses, public halls, and all 
have refined and intelligent society. 

THE EXPERIMENT STATION 



'T^HE Delaware Experiment Station is one of the best in the country 
and the State is so small in territory that every farmer in it may 
come in close touch with its every department. If the farmer finds 
among his hogs, his horses, his cows or his poultry a disease that he 
does not understand, or one that baffles the local veterinarian, he tele- 
phones at once to the Station and in a few hours the Station Veterin- 
arian is on the ground to diagnose the case and prescribe the remedy. 
If the fruit grower wants special assistance in fighting a fungus trou- 
ble or an insect, or if he wants information of a special nature about 
any of his operations, he calls to the Station for expert advice and 
the same day the examination is made and the advice given All the 
information at the command of the Station is freely given to all the 
farmers at the farmers' institutes which are held in all parts of the 
state every year, so that every farmer who will avail himself of the 
knowledge has the opportunity to learn from the best scientific men 
and the best practical farmers all that is best and most profitable in 
the agriculture of the state. 



Fiftj 




Kieffer Pears j^ays well 



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